Shaving Technique

I have been at the straight shave for about a week now and really enjoying the closeness of the shave! Have finely figured out my chin and lip areas. I did realize that getting over confiednt in your shaving technique can be dangerous...left myself with a nice 1/8 slice on my upper lip when I changed planes and didn't quite get my razor right. Good thing my stiptic pencil was working! :eek:

My question is two fold:

1) I notice myself using different portions of the blade as I shave different areas of my face, using the point around my lip and chin and back of my jaw line. Is this appropriate technique?

2) When I was shaving with a Mach III I had a stroke that went down my jaw line from my ear to my chin and a stroke in the same direction in the hollow of my neck. I just can't quite figure out how to get at those two areas of my face.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Yup, you are getting it. Everyone has to figure it out for their face. I use the whole blade in some areas, the point in some areas, the heel in other areas. It's all about learning the planes of your face and how to reach them with the particular grip that you are using on the razor (left or right).

Question 1: sure, this is good technique.

Question 2: Some stroke directions that can be done effortlessly with a DE or a cartridge razor, can't be done with a straight. Mostly due to the length of the blade. Changing hands or changing the grip can sometimes offer an answer on how to tackle certain areas. Tilting or turning your head, and pulling the skin up, down, or sideways are other things you can experiment with, in order to tackle the whiskers in the right direction.
For me personally, even then, there still is a spot left, in the hollow part of my neck, underneath the jawline, where I should be able to go sideways in order to shave precisely against the direction of the growth, which is the only way for me to achieve total smoothness.
Unless I would purchase a (non-existing) custom razor with a bend blade, that's an impossible thing to do.:rolleyes:
Hence I need to do the job at that spot, without being able to go ATG. How well I succeed in that, always determines the end-results of a particular shave for me. Things that help: a very sharp razor, a razor with a smiling curve at the edge, adding a scything motion to the stroke, finding the perfect cutting angle for a given razor.

Hope this offers you some ideas you can put to use for your situation,

Bart.

A few of things that helped me:

1. Try to move the razor with simple muscle movements. Either down, up or across. Try not to move it diagonally, combining horizontal and vertical movements. If the the razor hangs up, it will likely stop the vertical motion, but the horizontal motion will continue, cutting you. If you want to lead with the toe of the razor, simply tilt the razor down, don't try to move forward and down at the same time.

2. Plan your stroke, hold your face still, and make the cut deliberately. Don't hesitate, and especially don't move your head or change your facial expression while making a stroke!

3. Wipe the whiskers off with light pressure. Don't drive the razor edge into your face, rather scrape it across. Think about keeping the edge at about 30 degrees from your face and moving the entire razor across your face.

4. For the edge of my jawline and chin, I grab my neck with my left hand and rest my right hand on my left wrist. For my mustache, I grab my chin with my left hand, and then rest my right hand on my left hand and wrist. This really improves stability and allows me to use hand and finger muscles to shave my mustache instead of big arm muscles. Try it, the control is great.

5. Finally, ALWAYS keep an eye on that edge. I have nicked my earlobes and just underneath my nose because I moved my hand a little and didn't realize the edge was that close to my skin--yow!

Don't forget to stretch your skin; places that are normally hard to reach, like the jaw-line, can be moved to a more easily shaved area, like the bottom of your cheek.